The session got underway on a circuit that was fast drying from
overnight rain as the sun began to poke through the clouds.
Nevertheless it didn't take long for drivers to set lap times
comparable to Turkington's race lap record from last year, with
Croft winner Sutton an early pacesetter in the MG.

Mat Jackson soon bettered this in the Motorbase Ford, and
despite lapping quicker on his next effort, could not fend off Adam
Morgan's WIX Mercedes. Meanwhile the Subaru of Jason Plato, a
serial winner at Snetterton, set aside engine power concerns to
post the third, then second quickest time as the halfway mark
approached. He was soon joined by team-mate Turkington, and,
surprisingly, Team HARD's Michael Epps.

Halfway through the session Turkington went second, just seven
hundredths adrift of Morgan, with Sutton, Aron Smith and Andrew
Jordan also appearing in the top five, now tailed by Plato. Jordan
went even quicker, as did Turkington, topping the session by a
quarter of a second with a time that was just a few hundredths
short of his race lap record. He was then joined at the top by
championship leader Tordoff in the WSR BMW.

At this point all of the drivers had set a lap time apart from
the works Hondas of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden, which were
circulating, but so far returning to the pits on every tour.
Finally, with just six minutes remaining, the reigning champion set
the 13th-fastest lap, and shortly afterwards, team-mate Neal posted
his first flaying lap, which was only good enough for 27th place.
His next, however, at least moved him up to 15th, then he
leap-frogged his team-mate to end the session in the top ten.

Late on, Turkington went several tenths quicker and with almost
half a second in hand from Tordoff, ended the session quickest. A
late improvement from James Cole saw the Hondas bumped down to 11th
and 12th places respectively.

Tickets for the BTCC at Snetterton on 30/31 July
are available on the gate for £15 on Saturday and £33 on
Sunday, with free admission for under-13s. For more
information call our sales team on 0843 453 9000 or click
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